Gameplay not just Graphics.

Chicken Invaders 3 review

2007-03-28T12:12:00.000+02:00

I thought that Chicken Invaders 3 was gonna be a boring game. How could you make a game about chickens in space? But I was surprised. The touch of humour and very polished graphics makes this game outstanding.

The controls are really easy to grasp. You control a ship's movement with the mouse. Left click fires bullets but be careful not to overpress it coz there is a heat gauge which temporarily makes the firing out of order until it cools down. This heat gauge is an important element not to make the game dead easy. Right click is for firing missiles which basically blows up everything on screen. You only will have a few of these and you earn them with the points you collect.

There is an element of a story. It's about some device made by chickens which seems like it's dangerous to mankind. I'm not going to spoil to story though. Download it and enjoy the game ;)

Each stage consists of 10 levels. Sometimes it reminded me of Space Invaders and sometimes of shoot'em ups like Xenon 2. It has powerups which can make your firepower really devastating. My favourite is the lightning bolt *grin*. Some levels have a safe area which is highlighted so you can stay in it and not get hit. Also sometimes it highlights a danger area which you should avoid. This really spoils a bit the fun from finding yourself the safe zones in the "difficult" levels.

At the end of each stage you have a boss which needs to a take a lot more damage than the small chickens.

The game also boasts some nice subtle effects and transitions. E.g. after killing the boss you will be warped to the next stage. Nice :)

It also has a map view to give you an indication of the progress of the game.

The simple but effective story telling, polished graphics, orchestrated music, starwars kinda intro, humour, and polished gameplay makes this game worth trying. Give it a try.

Download Chicken Invaders 3

Cradle of Rome review

2007-03-26T01:36:00.000+02:00

Cradle of Rome is another puzzle game distributed by Big Fish Games.

In each level you have to destruct all the dark blu plaques in order to go to the next level. You destruct them by swapping a tile with and adjacent one to make it match with a 3+ tile row/column of the same type. It's easier playing it rather than trying to describe it :) When you destroy tiles, new ones will drop from the top, possibly causing random chain reactions.

Your side job is to collect as much money and resources from the level, so you can build your cradle of Rome. After each level you can upgrade your town and add buildings.

You also have to race against time to get the level done. Later on, a plaque needs to be destructed twice. From light blue, it gets to dark blue on the first destruction. Also you will be getting special one-time actions during the game when you destroy a certain amount of a specific tile. E.g. if you destruct a number of axe tiles, you will get a one time action to destroy a tile of your choice. The possible actions are found at the bottom of the screen, and when an action is available it is filled up with a colored graphic, ready to be used whenever you want.

Some tiles cannot be moved since they are chained. To unchain them you have to destroy a row or column of the same type of tile adjacent to it. The chain would then be removed, ready to be destroyed normally. If it's floating in the air like in the above screenshot, the tiles would start to fall down vertically, as if gravity is acting on them. The effect is more like when you have sand is falling in a sand-clock, i.e. in the above case you end up with a pyramid-like pile of tiles.

I don't know why you have to keep upgrading your town really. But it starts getting bigger and bigger after the first set of levels. It sort of keeps you hooked to see what the next upgrade will look like.

The graphics and backgrounds are polished. Even the music is good, starts with a tribal kinda music. Also for the beginners it gives hints when you are stuck. They hints are a minor highlight over the game board. To make your eyes focus on the area where you have to click next.
A tip I found helping me when I was playing it - work your way bottom up. I.e. start destroying the bottom plaques first. That would maximize the possible random chain reactions.

Download Cradle Dof Rome

Plasma Pong review

2007-03-24T11:11:00.000+01:00

Plasma Pong is simply awesome. I didn't think that someone could make such a cool version of Pong. Put fluid based simulation field in a Pong game and it creates a hell of a ride.

Every time you win the CPU, the speed is bumped up and the music BPM too. The music is a powerful track by E.S. Posthumus - Pompeii - and it really gives you an adrenaline shot as it gets faster and faster. Simply amazing. You have to try this out :)

Besides the usual pong controls, i.e. move your mouse to hit the ball and not let it pass, you can inject fluid in the field. It's like your blowing in the field simulation and creating currents to move the ball. You can even grab the ball by creating a vacuum and then exploding. Great effects and gameplay.

I got up to level 31 yaaaay. Lets see who will beat me.

Here's a movie on youtube to see it in action.

Tasty Planet review

2007-03-22T14:33:00.000+01:00

Tasty Planet distributed by Big Fish Games is about a creature born in a laboritory experiment gone wrong which can devour everything unless it is smaller than it. This game reminds me of Katamari but in 2d.

So you control this little guy with the mouse and try not to touch anything bigger than you. As you eat more stuff you get bigger. To pass a level you have to grow to some size although there are other levels where you have to find objects (like puzzle pieces) and go through a maze, eating up stuff as you go a long, so you end up eating the maze itself. Cool.

The controls are very easy, just move the mouse, and the creature will start moving in the direction you want to. There is an element of acceleration and deceleration, so when you stop moving the mouse, it won't stop abrubtly. To stop it immediately you have to move the mouse in the opposite direction. It feels quite natural after a few moments playing the game.

On the heads-up-display(HUD) it shows you the current size of the creature you're controlling, what you just ate and also the closest biggest thing you can eat.

The game is quite easy at first but gets more difficult since you also have to race against time. Also some levels, like in the ocean, if you touch something bigger than you, you die instantly and have to restart the level. Some tips: stay away from the edges, and stay away from objects bigger than you... ughh I'm starting to hate dolphins :)

Tasty Planet is accompanied by a comic strip to guide you from one set of stages to the next. You start from the lab, then you're flushed out, you find yourself on a picnic table, in the ocean, etc. The doc and his assistant in the comic strip give a nice break until you rest your arm from all the mouse hovering you have done in the previous stages.

The graphics are not extraordinary however the gameplay is great and that is what is important ;). When you reach the final moments of a level where you can eat everyting in your way, it gives you a feeling of power *grin*. Some idea of combos would have made the game more fun to play, like for example eating a number of objects in a very short time, or eating a number of objects of the same type. Maybe they will make Tasty Planet 2 someday :D. Meanwhile try this one out.

Download Tasty Planet

Stand O' Food review

2007-03-21T23:56:00.000+01:00

Another day, another game review. This time it's Stand O'Food, distributed by Big Fish Games. The concept of the game is pretty easy to grasp but will get really hectic when you get into it.

You have a number of customers that come to your restaurant and you have to make the burger they want. And you achieve this by grabbing burger parts in the right order. These burger parts are found in several queues behind the bench, so you may have to think fast from which queue you should take the next burger part. You may also use your immagination to add some sauces, etc to get some more points from the customers. Don't let them wait much though because you will get less money or they can even get out of your restaurant.

After each level you are offerred to upgrade the restaurant. For example you can buy sauces that you can put on their burgers. There are some sandwich recipes that are given in the tutorial (i.e. if you leave the tutorial text turned on). You can also buy extra plates where you can temporarily deposit burger parts until you really need them. Or you could upgrade your jukebox so that if some customers are getting pissed off at your slowness, you can play the jukebox to calm them down a bit.

During the game there are some pickups. Well not really pickups, but surprise bonuses which are given when you server a customer. E.g. there is this picker which will help you jump to the burger part that you really want to make the burger your customers want. You simply point and click on the part you want and jump the queue. Pretty useful when you have lots of customers waiting getting angry :)

The game also has an element of a map but it's not really interactive. You don't get to choose where to go. It's like a progress indicator.

I must say that at first I didn't like the game much. It felt like it wasn't gonna give me the fun factor I was looking for but I was wrong. Maybe the isometic/Lego kinda graphics put me off at first, but it really gives that toyish look which blends well with the rest of the game. Get your fingers clicking and give this game a try :)

Download Stand O'Food

Boom Voyage review

2007-03-21T18:24:00.000+01:00

I got to play another Breakout clone from Big Fish Games, this time Boom Voyage. This game is a 3d version of the classic breakout where now you also have height added to the whole story. When you destroy a block, the other blocks on top of it will fall down. It has some physics simulation in the game, and so you can cause a bit of a cool scenario where you see a chain reaction of blocks falling and toppling over other structures.

Each level is basically a temple and you guessed it, you have to destroy all the blocks that make up the temple by bouncing the ball around with your paddle. It has some cool powerups but nothing special. I like the nuke though. They have another cool pickup which is automatically spawned when you have the last small bits lying around in the level. It's called Alien Attack and when you pick it up they will clear for you the final pieces to save you some precious time and get on with destroying the next temple :D

Also each set of levels has a theme, e.g. it starts with Egypt, then it continues on what appeared to be in the Roman era, etc.

The game is a bit slow for my tastes so to give myself a challenge I ended up eating the negative powerups too, like speeding up the ball and making the paddle smaller.

The graphics are not so sharp, even the text is a bit blocky. This could be coming from the textures being a bit too small, but maybe its because they wanted to limit the game to a 10meg download. Nevertheless, the breakout gameplay is there.

If you're a Breakout freak, I'd suggest to try it out. The physics give the game a nice touch.

Download Boom Voyage

Virtual Villagers: Lost Children review

2007-03-21T00:18:00.000+01:00

Ok, I'm not a fan of life simulations, you know the kinds of Sim City, the Sims, etc yachhh. But I said let me try Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children out what the heck. And I confirm that I still don't like this genre. I know most of you out there like these types of games so be my guest and try it. I'm just gonna rant away.

From what I've seen the game is pretty polished and if you re-start the game the events that occur won't be the same. How do I know? Well... for starters I didn't know that the game was real-time, i.e. while I wasn't playing the game, the game would still know that I have neglected the villagers from food etc. When I relogged in the game after a day, I found 3 people from my village dead so I couldn't do anything. So I had to re-start the game campaign (after I dug a grave for the villagers ofcourse).

The game says there are puzzles during the game but I really didn't have the time to invest on such a game to get to the puzzles. I'd rather play a 5min game to take a break and that's it, rather than having to check out the villagers to see how they're doing. I've got more important commitments in my real life than checking how the virtual villagers are doing.

Although the default setting for the game is real-time you can set it half-speed(who would do this?) or double speed but it may still be really slow still. They should have had another setting x100 speed :). To build a hut it took the little guy ages. After 10min it was still at 1 percent. Argh!! It's a game! Why should it take so long to build something?

Also the start of the game is really slow to my liking. In order to do anything you have to research it. So you grab people and stick them near the research bench. At first they wouldn't want to, but apparently with some persistance they get good at it.

Also those random events that took away all your food pissed me off. It would tell you that some savage boy has come to your village. You tell the game to chase him off? And he would still steal the food. Huh?? So I just gave up on this game.

If you don't have a lot of patience and don't like life simulation games, don't try this out. Otherwise be my guest and download it. It still is a polished game if you like this game genre ... tribal music, tropical graphics, cartoony look and feel. But the game is just not my type :)

Download Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children

Peggle Deluxe review

2007-03-20T22:24:00.000+01:00

Peggle is a very cool game. Developed by PopCap and distributed by BigFishGames. It's like an evolution on Breakout where instead of having a paddle to at the bottom and you bounce a ball around to break bricks, you basically shoot a ball as a projectile from the top and to pass a level you have to hit all the orange pegs/bricks with just 10 balls. At the bottom of the screen you have a big container going left to right, and if the ball falls in this container, you don't loose the ball you have just shot.

You only shoot one ball at a time, and you then see how the gravity together with some physics will effect the ball to hit the pegs making the level. When the ball goes to the bottom of the screen, the pegs/bricks that you hit are cleared from the screen.

When you're going to hit the last orange peg/brick the game zooms in the action and goes slow motion. Very nice effect. Sometimes you can miss it and you will hear a sigh from a crowd, but if you hit it, it's a feast of eye candy. The ball leaves a colorful trail, a rainbow with cycling colors is splashed on the screen and some powerful classic music (which I believe is used in the eurovision transmission starting theme song) is played. Fireworks are also sent off when the ball deposits itself at the bottom of the screen where an extra bonus is given depending where the ball falls, the middle giving the highest points.

Besides the orange targets and blue pegs (which are just obstacles in the level), there are also green objects which when hit will give you a special power-up depending on the current stage you are in. Examples of power-ups are

trajectory prediction so you will see where the ball will go after the first bounce,
multiball where the ball is split into two balls (image in the effect if you hit multiple green objects)
container extension where the container at the bottom will expand so you don't loose the ball so easily

Later on you will also have moving objects rather static on the screen. There is a nice touch to the controls where you can fastforward a bit the time. So if you have a rotating set of objects, and you want to wait for the objects to get in the right position, you can right click your mouse and you fastforward time. Nice :)

The game is very polished. It is colorful and good for all ages. Very addictive too. My girlfriend didn't want to stop playing it :). The music and sound effects are also excellent. The backgrounds are just right, they give enough color to the level but not distracting - they keep the focus on the objects you should be targeting by not being high-contrast images. I suggest you give it a spin ;)

Download Peggle Deluxe

Turtle Odyssey 2 review

2007-03-17T16:44:00.000+01:00

This time I've tried out Turtle Odyssey 2 from BigFishGames which is a pretty decent platform game for the buck.

From the name I thought it would be a rather slow game... you know... Turtle Odyssey :). However it is not the case. It is a Super Mario Bros. kinda clone where you jump on all sorts of sea creatures to kill them and pick up coins. It is a relaxing game and more oriented to a young audience however it is still fun to play and take a break.

The game is story oriented where you need to go through a number of levels where then you have to kill some big boss which will guide you to the next part of the story.

In each level you have to find 5 jewels and go through the exit door. You will also find other goodies like starfish, treasure chests, etc. At the end of level, if you have picked up a star fish, you will have a go at the spinning wheel where you can get more points, health or a bonus level. Also try to pick up all the coins, kill all the enemies and try to find all the secret places - they are not so hard to find and they are full of coins and treasures to pick up :)

The bonus level is basically a coins-fest where you have to pick up all the coins within a minute. You have to be fast and don't waste time!! The more coins you pick, the closer you are to get an extra life.

Later in the game you will also be using a sea-horse which runs faster and also jumps higher. Even further down the game you will have the ability to do a double jump but I'll leave the rest for you to discover.

Some other features
- tried and tested gameplay (a platformer is always a platformer)
- very easy to pick up and play
- relaxing music
- relaxing animated backgrounds

Download Turtle Odyssey 2

Mistery Case Files - Ravenhearst review

2007-03-17T12:07:00.000+01:00

I got to download another bigfish game. This time the Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst. Actually I was offered the option to download while I was playing Atlantis - Sky Patrol. I found this background downloading feature quite useful.

The ambience of the game is a bit spooky but nothing really scary. Just some graphics of an abondoned house, mysterious music theme, ticking clock, squeaking door sounds, and occasionaly some whispering like "save me" or "unlock the doors".

The idea of the game is to visit locations in a house and for each level you have to find a number of objects in some rooms. Each room is basically a dump yard and the name of the game is to spot the required objects in each dump yard room. Some objects are really hard to spot since they have craftily placed them to camouflage them with other objects, like for example a shrimp placed inline with the handle of a coffee cup. If you can't find the objects and you're stuck you have 5 hints available which will highlight a region where the object is with a circular star formation.

Sometimes before you can enter a room you have to solve some puzzle, like for example placing objects in the right place, or making a sequence of clicks to open up the lock for the room.

When you have found the number of objects required in a level, you will be shown a faded picture and you have to put matching pieces on the picture. You may have to rotate the pieces to get them in the right orientation. It's like a 35-piece jigsaw puzzle. When you manage to map the whole picture you will be given some text to read to uncover the next part of the story.

If you like to play a simple game to take a break and you like "spot the object" games, this is for you.

Download Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst

Atlantis Sky Patrol Review

2007-03-17T00:24:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since my last post. I was (and still am) busy developing my projects.

I encountered Atlantis - Sky Patrol, a very cool game which reminded me of Zuma but much better. I tought I would share why I liked this game.

In Atlantis - SP, you have to stop a trail of colored spheres from reaching the end of the half-pipe. You control horizontally with the mouse a sort of space ship and when you click, the current sphere in your ship is fired. If the sphere you fired makes contact with trail, and forms a group of 3 spheres with same color, these 3 spheres are destroyed. Sounds a bit complex but it's more difficult to explain rather than playing it :)

So far this is similar to Zuma, however it has some other interesting gameplay elements. The main one being that to stop the continous spewing of spheres, you have to destroy some strategically-placed stationary spheres which are outside the half-pipe.

Another interesting feature is that you collect coins during the game and you can then upgrade your ship, like for example to help you with accuracy, speed of firing spheres, magnetic effect for pickups to make it easiers to not miss any pickup that is thrown at you, etc.

It boasts 111 levels (or devices that you have to stop) and there is this theme of travelling around the world, each level is a destination.

There is also a bonus level every 5 levels or so. This is somehow reminded me of the class Asteroids game. The only similarity actually is that you have some big spheres that move and wrap around the screen. When you shoot them, these divide until they release some coins and you have to pick them up. You have to avoid the mines which would explode and make you loose the possible coins in the bonus level.

Another interesting feature is that for some levels the ship slides over a curve rather than just horizontally. These levels give you a bit of harder challenge to aim the firing of spheres.

There is also an element of physics where sometimes there will be objects that bounce the spheres you fire at them and will remind you of some pinball game.

Some other points:
- 111 levels
- addictive gameplay
- nice visuals and presentation
- 28megs download only
- catchy music

Download Atlantis - Sky Patrol

Flatout 2 - a very good stress reliever

2006-08-14T01:19:00.000+02:00

It was a very busy stressful week, but I got to play a very good stress relieving game this weekend. It's called Flatout2 by Bugbear. It's very similar to the Burnout series which never came out to the PC. But now we have a very decent replacement for our destructive racing needs. The scenes are very destructable (unless you hit a tree). The game mode I like best is destruction derby which reminds of the classic game called Destruction Derby by Reflections who are known for their other classic Shadow of the Beast.

You need to try it out to appreciate the destructive nature of this game :)

Cloud game - relaxing gameplay

2006-08-06T01:49:00.000+02:00

If you want to try a relaxing game, then download the Cloud game. You will be in control of a dreaming girl that is able to fly and influence certain clouds. You need to guide this type of cloud near other similar clouds to enlarge the controlling cloud. You can then make any shape you want with the cloud or go near dark clouds to transform the clouds into rain and thunderstorms. It's a pretty relaxing game, and for being a university project, I must say it is very polished.

Narbacular Drop - unpolished portals game

2006-08-05T09:57:00.000+02:00

Narbacular Drop is a game which is similar to what Portal's gameplay which will be distributed with HalfLife2 Episode 2. The major difference will be that you don't shoot to create a portal, but aim, click, hold and release.

The game's graphics are not polished, however the gameplay is there. If you want to grab the game, download it here.

GTR2 - fun professional race driving

2006-07-30T12:06:00.000+02:00

If you like racing games, then download the demo of GTR2 by SimBin. I usually don't like too-realistic games. But this racing simulation is awesome. It's so realistic that you feel like you're driving a real car. The view I prefer for racing games is a just-behind-car camera view. I don't like the first-person view. BUT for this game, the first-person view is so real and puts you right into the driving seat that once you try it, you won't go to another view. You will see the driver changing gears, pressing the clutch/gas/brake and the high-speed vibrations of the car which really give the finishing touch.

The demo starts with the default setting set to maximum help, such as:
- steering help,
- braking help,
- stability help,
- traction control,
- anti-lock breaking system (ABS).
The fun starts when you start turning off these one by one, and see how it effects your driving, especially when you turn off traction control. It takes lots of practice to master, but you will appreciate the professional drivers' skills. I suggest that you try this demo with a wheel jostick since you wouldn't enjoy it as much.

Call of Juarez

2006-07-30T10:53:00.000+02:00

I tried out the demo for Call of Juarez which is a western FPS with cowboys, guns and horses. It has some interesting gameplay elements such as:
- focused shooting (where you go in a sort of bullet-time and you wait until the cross hairs are at a good point where you shoot, while you can lean to avoid the enemy's bullets)
- fire spreading
- horseback riding
- whip swinging
- duel quick draw (where you use your mouse to draw your weapons at a specific time to shoot your enemy... didn't feel like too much fun though)

Having pointed out these gameplay elements, it seems that none of them are polished enough. Hopefully it's because it is still a demo. For example, horse back riding felt a bit awkward. Whip swinging didn't feel right. The focused shooting feels like it's a bit retro. There's a part where you need to steel a horse. It was a bit irritating especially since when you get the horse, you only use for 20 seconds. Might as well walk it!! But nooo, you have to steal the flippin' horse!

The things I didn't like where the following:
- Facial animations where horrendous... it would have been better if they provided some comic strips instead of cutscenes.
- It takes way too much time to load. Hope they will fix this in the final release
- I don't have such an old system, and the graphics didn't seem like they were cutting edge at low settings, but still the frame rate was very low making the game almost unplayable (unless i look at the floor LOL).
- The weapons didn't feel too much responsive.
- If this was made 3rd person, it would have felt more like Max Payne and would be much controllable. Especially with the whip swinging and horse riding.
- You need a real high-end video card to enjoy playing the game at a decent frame-rate and enjoy the visuals of this game. But then again, the gameplay doesn't feel so polished.

If you try out the demo, don't forget to increase the brightness from the game settings since you won't be able to see the enemies.

The Ship - intriguing but slow gameplay

2006-07-30T10:28:00.000+02:00

I tried out The Ship by Outerlight at a friend of mine. It is a combination between an RPG, an FPS but you are to kill a specific victim onboard of the ship. The gameplay is innovative, since it combines RPG elements (e.g. needs such as eating, sleeping, number 1 and number 2). But you must be a very patient player since you must explore a lot (you may get lost) and be careful to not get caught by some guards when you're with an axe in your hand for example.

Here are the things I didn't like about the game:
- too slow to explore the boat
- the environment is too dark and dull
- the needs get annoying (but I'm not an RPG kind of player :) )
- if you run out of money you can get stuck (couldn't buy food or drink)
- you won't know if someone is coming behind you to kill you
- takes too long to get some action

I'm sure that there are gamers who will like this game. But if you are an action gamer, you won't like this game much.

Dynamic portals not so new

2006-07-26T00:33:00.000+02:00

There's some video dated back to E3 of 1998, where Paul Schuytema was showing off Prey at it's "early" stages. He shows some interesting stuff they were doing back at that time. They also showed off dynamic creation of portals which we are now seeing in Portal.

This is why games should be released much sooner. We should have been playing portal madness and destructable terrain since 1998!

Portal - now you're thinking in portals

2006-07-20T17:20:00.000+02:00

Valve have released a video of the gameplay of another game called Portal which will be included in HalfLife2 Episode 2. The idea behind the game is that you can create a portal by firing a special bullet which when it hits some scenery the portal is opened. Then you fire another one to create the destination of the portal. Now this is new gameplay! Ok, we have seen portals in other games, but the possibility of creating portals yourself opens a new dimension. You start thinking in portals! The idea is simple, but it creates an interesting single player puzzle game. I don't think this can be a multiplayer game though. It would be too weird.

ArkLight - breakout + shoot'em up

2006-07-18T19:27:00.000+02:00

ArkLight is an action game with a combination from Breakout and shoot'em up games. You control this spaceship in a scrolling level, and you have to fire these energy balls that break the blocks in front of you to clear the path. These energy balls will bounce back and you can hit them back with your spaceship to bounce them somewhere else, or you could also direct them towards your ship to recollect them and restore your ship's energy.

It has a very shallow learning curve but addictive gameplay. At first the levels are quite easy but it gets hectic :).

Download ArkLight

Wild Earth - virtual safari

2006-07-09T19:02:00.000+02:00

Wild Earth has an FPS view, however you don't shoot and kill anything. You point and shoot photos of animals around you. At first I thought that it would be a dumb game, but after playing the demo I think it's quite a good game. At least the gameplay is different from the usual games. During the demo, I learnt a lot about elephants with the ongoing commentary. The game somehow hooks you to taking photos of animals and exploring. And at the end of the level, a web article is generated which can also be shared with your friends.

I must say, this game is a very good idea for edutainment.

Wii early in September/October?

2006-07-07T08:55:00.000+02:00

Daily Tech and SCI FI Tech have reported that there's a big possibility that Wii will be coming two months earlier. They already started manufacturing the retail units! COOOOL. Unlike PS3.

Lets hope there won't be a shortage of Wii consoles when it launches.

HalfLife2 Episode 1 - just finished it

2006-07-05T17:03:00.000+02:00

Warning: possible spoiler?
I found some time to finish HalfLife2 Episode 1, and although there were no new gameplay elements, some levels where fun to play. Possibly coz the rocket launcher was introduced in the levels. I really liked the level in the warehouse where a Gunship hovers over the warehouse, shooting and destroying parts of the warehouse to try to hit you. All you have is a rocket launcher and gaps in the warehouse's wood panels. Nice level.

Another nice map was the one where you protect and rescue groups of allies to take the train. You have to go back and forth to rescue them. An APC comes along at one point and you have to take it down with the rocket launcher.

Also before you catch your train, a Strider tries to hunt you down and you have to hide and take him down with a rocket launcher. Yeah I admit, I love the rocket launcher. The guiding of missiles is a nice touch.

Lets hope that episode 2 will contain some interesting gameplay (and less creepy dark levels). I think that VALVe are now playing around with their technology to create fun-to-play maps, rather then introduce new gameplay ideas. Some complex physics puzzles would be nice.

Titan Quest - been there done that

2006-07-02T11:11:00.000+02:00

Titan Quest is an RPG where you go through several ancient locations like the pyramids, parthenon etc etc. There's a lot of detail in the graphics, however there is no innovation in gameplay. It's the usual point-and-click-allocate-experience-points-do-magic-spells kind of game. Basically it's somewhere between Diablo and Dungeon Siege. If you liked these games, but want a different story and feel like you're a gladiator, then you will enjoy this game. If you were looking for something refreshening regarding gameplay in RPGs, it feels like quite the same as the others ... at least from the demo.

Armadillo Run

2006-06-30T09:35:00.000+02:00

Armadillo Run is a neat indie game where you have to construct bridges made of cloth, metal and ropes and you need to make a ball (armadillo) roll over the bridge to arrive to a specific place. You need to be careful not to over-stress the parts of the bridge, coz otherwise it breaks down.

The user interface is very intuitive. You will start playing it in no time. Also you can create your own levels which is a great plus. You can also share your levels with others or download what others have created.

Grab the demo.

Indigo Prophecy

2006-06-26T17:56:00.000+02:00

Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit) is now a bit old (released Oct 2005) however I got the chance to finally play the demo of this game. It is a thriller adventure game. Some guy apparently manages to possess other people and so is able to do murders at a distance. The interesting part of the game is the way you do actions which are done with mouse gestures. Another plus is that you can achieve a goal in a scene in many ways so there that open endedness feeling (but it's just a feeling mind you :) ). Also, you are shown what is happenning elsewhere while you're playing, like for example a policeman is coming towards the room you're in and so u have to hurry to do the actions required. The demo is quite short and you cannot skip cinematics if you want to replay the demo...argh!! I will try to buy a copy of this game when I have more free time on my hands :)

Episodic content - not the holy grail for game releases

2006-06-24T10:55:00.000+02:00

Ok, so far we have two games that have been converted to releasing of episodes: Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and SiN Episode 1. They are both available on Steam. Regarding SiN Episode 1 I still have to play it.

Valve had originally said that they will be releasing HL2 episodes every 6 months, but I've already read somewhere that the release date is Spring 2007. Now that isn't really 6 months away is it? I'm already not impressed by what I saw in HL2 ep 1, however Valve are promising that episode 2 will have something new. Sincerely I don't care much about either the G-man or the Vortigaunts. I remember in HL1 trying to kill the G-man but obviously they didn't attach any bullet collision detection with his mesh. Ok the story telling done by Valve is nice, but heck give me some new gameplay. It wasn't worth the 20$ IMHO. Maybe 10$ would have been better *grin*

I don't think episodes will become a major way of releasing games. They could have named HL2 episode 1 anything, HL players would have still bought it. Ideally the publishers should release an episode every 3 months. 6 months is too much (let alone a year). Gamers will soon learn that they play games to experience new challenging gameplay. If you give them the same gameplay but with an extension to the story they will get bored. There's already a statistic that only 22.75% have finished episode 1 although Valve has said that this could be a bug in their statistic collection. If new episodes just mean more story telling, I prefer buying the season of 24 or X-files rather than a 5hr game with no new gameplay.

Prey demo - nice ideas

2006-06-22T21:15:00.000+02:00

I have to say I was very sceptical about Prey but after launching the demo I got hooked.

You start in a bar where your girlfriend works and some drunk guys try to grab her. So you take your pipe-wranch and BAMMM! Then the room starts to shake, a spaceship appears and starts sucking everything up. In the background Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper starts playing which really sets the right mood for some action.(I remember hearing the tune in some Steven King movie)

You're sucked into this spaceship which seems like some alien torture chamber. The Doom3 engine really sets the right atmosphere with it's dark shadows, but at least the lighting is adequate in this game (unlike Doom 3...buuaaah...I remember installing a mod called duct tape which made possible the use of a flash light with the gun heh)

There are some weird things which introduce some interesting gameplay ideas in an FPS:

Gravity paths - these are paths which have a gravitational pull and if you walking it you may end up walking up a wall or even walk on the ceiling.
Gravity switching - you can shoot a switch and the gravity changes to that floor which hosts the switch.
Spirit switching - you leave your body to use your spirit to reach some places which can't be reached with your physical body

Then there are some other interesting things that happen during the demo. The game makes use of portals and at one point you see yourself through a portal and so can end up walking after yourself, weird feeling hehe. Another interesting part was that you get shrunk into a container and you see a huge alien coming towards this container and then decides to join the fun inside the container.

I can't wait to play this multiplayer with my friends. Should be interesting.

Videos of Wii-mote @ Gameworld Network

2006-06-21T22:36:00.000+02:00

Gameworld Network has an interesting collection of high quality streaming videos of the Wii-mote in action. Check'em out.

HalfLife2 Episode 1 - no new gameplay?

2006-06-21T00:58:00.000+02:00

HL2 ep1 feels even more like an interactive movie which at one point made me really edgy - i was with just a torch light (which damn it doesn't last long enough), hearing those zombines coming towards me and the ammo is not enough to kill them all. Yeah I admit, I'm scared of the dark ... and when I get too scared i hit Alt-F4 ;)

I'm still not convinced about the naming of episodes. Maybe it's about time that gamers stop expecting a 20hrs+ worth of gaming from an FPS. Valve are doing an excellent job at pushing the technologies to deliver an emotional experience while playing.

However I prefer games which don't play with my emotions and don't make my bladder explod. They should concentrate more on gameplay. Ok, so the gravity gun was an interesting weapon for HL2 and the use of physics with it, but now it's already old. There seems to have been a lot of attention to detail in the levels and the animations. Agreed. However I don't think you'll see any new gameplay in HL2 ep1.

I still have to finish HL2 ep1, once I get back some courage to continue it :) Then i'll add another post.

LocoRoco - bubbly action online

2006-06-19T17:21:00.000+02:00

LocoRoco is very similar to Chronic Logic's Gish however LocoRoco looks more cartoonish and doesn't have a dark theme like Gish.

In LocoRoco you control an orange blob around a level - a sort of platform game but with more physics thrown in. The blob deforms and bounces realistically thanks to some physics acting on it. The controls are easy, and game concept is simple but it looks really fun to play.

Check out an online playable demo of LocoRoco (requires Flash) - see if you like it or not. Now if only I had a PSP ... hmmm.

Eets - interesting gameplay

2006-06-18T09:47:00.000+02:00

Eets is a very interesting game where your task is to place objects at a certain place to make Eets, a highly-emotional cute animal, arrive to a puzzle piece. Some of these objects can be marshmallows that change how Eets will behave when they are eaten, e.g. when he's afraid he won't jump when he arrives at an edge of a platform, but just turn back. You can also place explosive objects and lots of other stuff. These objects are placed in a sort of sandbox controlled by a consistent physics engine which makes the game more interesting. You must try it out to see what I mean. Also, its cartoonish backgrounds somehow remind me of Day of the Tentacle.

Another cool thing about this game is that you can create your own levels with a very easy to use interface. Or you can download more levels that other people are doing and posting on the Eets community website.

Grab yourself a copy of the demo.

Wii to change how we play?

2006-06-17T11:39:00.000+02:00

Most of you have already heard about nintendo's Wii which hopefully will be available in November 2006 :D

For those who don't know what's so special about the Wii, here's a video from E3 2006. There are some important people from nintendo who play a game of virtual tennis. You will see that this will open a thousand possibilities for new gameplay ideas.

For more interesting videos you can also visit's Wii's website.